Law Commons^™

Subsidizing Charitable Contributions: Incentives, Information, And The Private Pursuit Of Public Goals, David M. Schizer

Faculty Scholarship

The charitable deduction has enjoyed relatively little support in the legal academy. Many commentators have asked what it adds to the tax system and, as critics such as Stanley Surrey and Paul McDaniel have observed, the deduction obviously does not itself collect tax revenue. Defenders respond that the deduction helps to measure income and to keep taxpayers from inefficiently substituting leisure for work, but these points are, of course, contested. Instead of revisiting debates about what the deduction adds to the tax system, this Article focuses on the broader question of what it adds to the pursuit of public goals. …